Hot Shot, Jazz and I headed home, with me sprawled out in the front seat, fast asleep. When he pulled into the Autobot base, Optimus was waiting... and he looked slightly worried.
"Hot Shot!" he cried. "Where have you been? Sarah's not in her room, is she with you?" Hot Shot rolled to a stop and chuckled.
"She's inside, Sir," he said. "Fast asleep. Why are you up so late, sir?"
"I thought I heard something coming from Sarah's room, so I went to see what it was. When I got there, she was gone and so were you. Where the devil do you go?" Hot Shot began to chuckle some more- he was grinning his head off, but you wouldn't be able to tell while he was in vehicle mode.
"Where the devil, sir? Stealing Sarah's saying, are we?" Optimus was silent for a moment, then smiled and laughed.
"Well, it certainly fits, doesn't it? Where did you guys go?" Hot Shot told the whole story, ending with the mysterious Silver Mini-Con. "A silver Mini-Con, eh? Never heard of one like that before."
"Neither has Jazz," Hot Shot replied. "I doubt anyone has." He was about to say more, when his driver side door opened. I climbed out, followed by Jazz; yawned; gave a good stretch and looked up at Optimus.
"Good morning, Sir," I said. "At least I believe it's morning. How are you?" He looked down at me with a soft smile.
"Good morning, Sarah. I trust you slept well?" I nodded.
"Yes, thank you. Hot Shot, you have a very comfortable front seat." Hot Shot transformed to robot mode and chuckled.
"I'll have to take your word for it, Sare," he told me. "Not very easy to get in your own back seat." I laughed, then drifted my gaze back over to Optimus.
"Would you like to see the Mini-Con?" I asked him. He was about to reply, when Rad, Alexis and Carlos walked in. I felt my cheeks turning red- I had just rolled out of bed; my hair was all messed up; my glasses (Yeah, I have glasses- I know it's kinda late to mention this, but I've had them the entire time and I'm darn near blind without them) were back in the room the Autobots called mine and I could feel my cheeks turning red. There was something about Carlos seeing me looking trashy that made me feel kind of... I don't know, embarrassed I guess. And why did Carlos have his hand behind his back?
"Hi Sarah," he said as his hand came out from behind his back. He was holding a bouquet of wild flowers, which he handed to me. "I picked these for you on the way up here. Do you like them?" My jaw hung open a bit as I took the flowers.
"I love them, Carlos," I said as I leaned over and kissed his cheek, which turned as red as mine. "Thank you."
"N-no prob-problem," he stuttered back. Jazz and I took the flowers to my room, where I put my glasses on, grabbed a comb from my backpack and ran it through my hair. Jazz just looked at me for a second, then decided to say something.
"What's up with you?" I shot him a confused look.
"What do you mean by that?" I asked.
"You've never cared about what you looked like before," Jazz replied. "Why are you starting now?" I shrugged my shoulders.
"I don't know, Jazz. It's just that... well, I guess when Carlos is around, it makes me feel like I need to class up a bit." Jazz gave a light robotic chuckle.
"I think he likes you the way you are."
I was about to reply when the Mini-Con alarm went off. Jazz and I rushed to the teleportation room, me stopping only to put my backpack on and to change into my orange jumpsuit.
"Where are we going?" I asked. Smoke Screen looked down at me.
"To some little island in the Pacific Ocean," he told me. "I think they call it Hawaii." My jaw dropped.
"Hawaii?! We're going to that paradise? Stellar!" Hot Shot switched to vehicle mode, cueing Jazz and I to hop inside.
"This island's a paradise, eh Sarah-girl?" Hot Shot asked me.
"Mm-hmm. It is for us humans, anyway." We arrived on a beach that was totally abandoned- my guess was we landed at one of the smaller, uninhabited islands. All the better- who wants to explain a bunch of robots appearing out of nowhere?
Jazz and I hopped out of out Hot Shot's seat; Rad, Alexis and Carlos hopped out of Optimus and all the Autobots transformed to robot mode.
"Okay," said Optimus. "Kids, you and your Mini-Cons start looking for the new Mini-Con. The rest of us will set up an ambush for the Decepticons."
"Too late, Optimus Prime!" Suddenly, laser blasts came out of nowhere, aimed right at us. There was an ambush all right- we were it. I managed to look up and see the Decepticons firing at us from atop a large sand dune.
"Crossbow!" yelled Smoke Screen, talking to a small purple Mini-Con, the one I had given him yesterday. When Crossbow linked up with Smoke Screen, he became a... well a crossbow that launched combination dynamite/ laser arrows, which he began to fire at the Decepticons.
"Kids!" cried Hot Shot, as he began to fire as well. "Get out of here, now!" Carlos, Rad and Alexis hopped on their Mini-Cons and sped away, but I stayed where I was. "Sarah, what are you doing? Get out of here!"
"No," I yelled. "I'm not leaving you!" Hot Shot couldn't believe what he was hearing. Frankly, I couldn't believe what I was saying, either. I, a five-foot-five inch, fourteen-year-old, four-eyed girl was worried about a thirty-foot, fully armed metal robot. There were probably stranger things in the world, none that I can think of off the top of my head, but that was my gut feeling- don't let Hot Shot out of your sight. My gut was telling me the same with Carlos, but as long as he was with Rad and Alexis, I felt I didn't need to worry... too much.
"Sarah-girl, I'll be fine!" Hot Shot yelled back. "Please- just go!" I shook my head.
"Forget it- I'm not go.. Jazz!" Well, my original plan was not to leave, but it seemed Jazz had other ideas. Still in robot mode, he picked me up; tossed me into the air and switched to vehicle mode. I landed right on his seat and he sped off. Hot Shot smiled.
"Oh, yes you are."
"Jazz, what are you doing?!" I cried. "Take me back there, NOW!"
"No can do, Sare," he replied. "Hot Shot and I both know you care, but we're not gonna let you get killed because of it!" I gave a slight growl and stood up on Jazz's seat. "What are you doing?!" I leapt into the air and landed on the ground, only to be running back towards Hot Shot seconds later. Yeah, I know I'm crazy- comes with the territory.
Hot Shot had called on the Star Saber and was in the process of using it on Starscreen, who was countering with a sword of his own; it was just one of his jet wings, but it was working. Hot Shot couldn't believe it- Starscreen had never been able to beat him when he had the Star Saber, but the Decepticon seemed to be fighting with a new source of power- most likely a threat from Megatron- and managed to knock the Star Saber out of Hot Shot's hand and knock him to the ground... just as I was closing in. He raised his sword into the air and drove it into Hot Shot's left arm. I froze in my tracks.
"NO!" I yelled. "Hot Shot!" He was engulfed in pain, but Hot Shot had enough energy to look my way and shake his head.
"Sarah," he whispered. "Run." I clenched my teeth together and looked Starscreen dead in the eye.
"Hey, you junk yard reject! Why don't you try getting what you're really after?"
Meanwhile, Rad, Carlos and Alexis had stumbled upon not one Mini-Con, but two- both of them silver, like the one I found years ago.
"What do you think it means?" asked Alexis. "Could it be another combination, like the Star Saber?" Rad shook his head.
"I don't know, Alexis," he replied. "It could be just that."
"Yeah," said Carlos. "But we won't know until we find the other piece."
"Right," agreed Alexis. "Lets take them back to Optimus and see what he thinks." Her companions concurred, hopped on their Mini-Cons and headed back towards the Autobots.
Starscreen looked at me and gave a chuckle. He could see a fire raging in my eyes... but he couldn't see a slightly recovered Hot Shot coming up behind him.
"You think you're pretty bad," he said. "Don't you, human?" I grinned.
"I'm not bad," I replied. "But the bad don't mess with me- they're usually stuck with him."
Starscreen was about to turn around, when Hot Shot managed to use his Star Saber to slice off Starscreen's second jet wing and a bit of the back of his head as well. Starscreen was knocked unconscious (I guess it is possible, considering it happened to Red Alert, but I still had no idea how it worked.) and fell to the ground. Not even a second later, Hot Shot fell right next to him. I rushed over and knelt down at his side.
"Hot Shot?" I asked. "Hot Shot speak to me, please!" He opened his eyes a bit, looked at me and smiled.
"I'll be all right Sarah-girl. Go find that Mini-Con." I don't know why I chose to listen to him this time, but I nodded and ran off to find Jazz.
"Megatron, Sir!" yelled Cyclonis. "Starscreen is down and the girl is on the run." Megatron had been, once again, fighting with Optimus when Cyclonis delivered the news and had only one thing to say.
"Well, go get her, you idiot!" Cyclonis nodded, then transformed to vehicle mode and took off after me. Optimus knocked Megatron to the ground.
"Red Alert," he said, "Where's Hot Shot?" Red Alert shook his head.
"I don't know, Sir," he replied. "But I'll find out."
"Jazz!" cried Carlos. "Where's Sarah? Is she all right?" Carlos had spotted Jazz heading towards him and instantly noticed my absence. Jazz let out some excited beeps, then sped off. "I think he wants us to follow him!" So, with one Mini-Con under his arm and the other with Rad, Carlos and co. went after Jazz.
"Now I've got you, human!" I hadn't found Jazz yet, but trouble seemed to have found me- Cyclonis was right on my tail and my legs felt like Jell-o. Then, the one thing no pursued person wants to happen did- I tripped, which gave Cyclonis the opportunity to slide one of his missiles under my backpack and lift me into the air. Only one thought came to my mind: "Not good."
"Hot Shot!" Red Alert found Hot Shot face down on the ground next to Starscreen, barely conscious. "Hot Shot are you all right?" Hot Shot looked up at him, his eyes barely open.
"Sarah," he said. "Where's Sarah?" Red Alert was about to say he didn't know, when an ear piercing shriek filled the air- my ear piercing shriek.
"HELP!" Well, to make a long story short, a stray laser beam had hit Cyclonis, knocking me out his grasp and he crashed. So now, I'm falling from three miles up in the air, screaming to my little heart's content... taking a deep breath every now and then- needed air to scream, ya know.
Carlos, Rad and Alexis heard my cry and looked up at me, as did Jazz.
"Oh no," cried Carlos. "She'll never survive a fall like that!" Just as he said that, the Mini-Con in his hand and the one in Rad's began to glow. And two and a half miles in the air, the one in my backpack began to glow as well. Suddenly, all three turned into robots, the one with me destroying my backpack in the process. The first, the one that had been in my former backpack, was a sliver (duh!) rocket, with red stripes on the wing tips. I hoped it was going to scoop me up and set me safely on the ground, but no such luck- it turned into a sword!
"A SWORD?!" I yelled as I grabbed hold of it. "What the devil am I supposed to do with this?!" The second Mini-Con was a jet, once again silver with red wing tips, which sped up to me and transformed into what looked like the chest plate to a suit of armor, with the Mini-Con Symbol on the front, wings and a helmet, which fitted itself on me. "Now what's this?" I continued, two miles above the ground. "And what does this button do?" I had located a small red button on the left shoulder and was about to push it when the 3rd Mini-Con sprang into action. He was a car, that leapt into the air and transformed into a shield and landed in my other hand.
"Push the button!" a series of beeps told me. I pushed the button, which activated rockets on the wings of my armor stuff.
"WOW!" I cried. "This is great! How do you steer?!" I leaned to my left, which turned me left. "All right! Lets go!" I soared through the air, as happy as could be- this flying thing was stellar! Demolisher even tried to take me down with a laser blast, and my shield helped me shrug it off like it was nothing. Megatron saw me in the air and scowled. Now that my hotshot attitude was airborne, and both his planes grounded, I'd be harder to catch.
"Decepticons!" he called. "Retreat!"
After the Decepticons left, and it seemed I was out of danger, I landed and my suit of armor transformed back into Mini-Cons. They just kinda stared at me and I just kinda stared at them.
"Hi," I said. "I'm Sarah and I owe you guys big time- you saved my life!"
"We're the Armory," one, the Rocket/ sword told me. "And that's why we're here- to protect you from the Decepticons." I nodded.
"You guys are part of that prophecy, aren't ya?" The Mini-Cons nodded. "I see- do you guys have names?"
"No," said the Jet/ chest plate. "That's your job." I nodded again.
"All right then, lets see." I pointed at the rocket. "You are the most stellar weapon I've ever seen, man- so your name's Stellar." I looked at the Jet. "You're a pretty decisive factor in that Armor- without you, I would have fallen to my death. Your name's Criterion." Lastly, I looked at the car/ shield. "That blast from Demolisher would have delivered one heck of a shock, even with Criterion. Thanks to you, I didn't feel a thing- glad to have you with me, Shockstopper!" My new friends smiled... just as I remembered something. "Oh my gosh! Hot Shot! JAZZ!"
From wherever he was, Jazz heard my call and came speeding. When he arrived, I hopped on and told him to take me to Hot Shot.
"Criterion, Stellar, Shockstopper!" I said. "Come on- the good guys are over here!" The Armory turned to their vehicle modes and followed Jazz and I to the rest of the Autobots, humans, Mini-Cons and Hot Shot. He was sitting down with his right hand on his hurt arm. "Hot Shot? Are you okay?" He looked at me and smiled.
"I'm okay, Sarah-girl," he told me, then pointed at the Armory. "Who are these guys?" I smiled.
"Sit down, everyone- this'll take a while."